PTC Chimes In for a la Carte

The Parents Television Council lauded the Federal Communication Commission’s new report on cable prices Thursday, saying that its findings are evidence of the need for a la carte.

“This FCC report affirms what we’ve been saying for the past few years: Cable prices are accelerating at exorbitant rates, and the key driver behind the price increases is programming -- programming that is being forced onto consumers who have no say in the matter,” PTC president Tim Winter said in a prepared statement.

“An overwhelming majority of families want to be able to choose and pay for only the cable networks they want,” he added. “So why is it that we cannot pick and choose -- and pay for -- only the cable networks we want in our homes? Because the cable-network programmers have a chokehold on the public. They make billions of dollars every year by forcing consumers to pay them for channels they don’t watch, don’t want and may actually find offensive.”

Winter concluded, “If the cable industry continues to force such anti-competitive practices onto the consumer, then we have no choice but to urge the new Congress to act quickly to provide consumers with cable choice.”